Walker takes away positives from Spain experience

Photo courtesy of/For Bryan County Now Former Richmond Hill High School and current BYU track star Shaquille Walker competes in the 800-meter run at the IAAF world junior championships in Barcelona, Spain, held July 10-15.

Now that Shaquille Walker is back from Barcelona, Spain, where he competed in the 800-meter run at the International Association of Athletic Federations world junior championships from July 13-15, he’s had a chance to reflect on his experience from competing among some of the best athletes on the planet.

And while Walker didn’t come out on top, after being eliminated in the semifinals, he is focusing on the positives of what has been a storied and achievement-filled year for him on the track.

Walker, a former Richmond Hill High School state champion and current member of the track-and-field team at Brigham Young University who won first place at the USATF junior championships at Indiana University last month, finished 17th at the IAAF event, seventh in his semifinal heat, with a time of 1:51.43.

Walker had advanced to the semis after finishing fourth in his heat and 16th out of 60 runners during the first day of competition on July 13 with a 1:49.55 mark, his third best personal time.

“It was a very good experience for me, and one I’m grateful for,” Walker said. “After the first round, they take the top three finishers from each of the seven heats, plus the next three highest times. And I wound up being the 24th and final person to qualify even though I finished the first day at 16th and could have won a couple of the heats. I didn’t make it to the finals, but there was still a lot of good that came from getting to compete there. I ran in the same arena that hosted the 1992 Olympics, and that was just unreal.”

On the first day of competition, Walker actually led his heat at the halfway mark and for most of the race, something he hadn’t done much of previously.

“It was a big step for me. One thing I’ve always done is start off sticking towards the back and then move up, but I had my most success in college when I did start to lead,” Walker said. “I didn’t expect to lead here, but I felt like I had to. Once you run in a race like that, you really just have to go for it.”

And Walker felt like he had nothing to lose as he took on the stiffest competition of his life.

“In my race on day one, I was racing against this kid from Bostwana, and of all the runners there, he had the second fastest time and was far better than anyone I had faced at regionals or nationals, one second ahead of me,” Walker said. “I think I did a much better job of keeping myself calm throughout the race and saying ‘hey, this guy is your age, run your race, don’t give up, and anything is possible.’ I kept myself positive, and I can look back and say, running against some of the fastest people in the history of the world, ‘you did fine.’”

While Walker said the experience in Spain will help him in future races, his next one will not be for at least another two years. Instead, Walker will head to England in August to spend those next two years serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, which he joined in high school. Walker said about 80 percent of the athletes at BYU choose to go on missions such as these.

“It’s something I’ve decided to do and where my heart is at,” he said. “It’s not mandatory. And At BYU, the coaches are used to handling things like this. I’ll still be on the same scholarship. Most of the guys do it around 19- or 20-years-old, but it’s really whenever the best time is for you. Most of the guys who leave, it’s 50-50 on whether or not they get back into running or whatever sport they play, but I would definitely like to run in the future.

“It’s going to be scary in terms of not running for two years because I’ll be busy doing other things, but I think the way my body is, I can keep in shape and be able to pick it back up.”